ELON MUSK HITS TEQUILA HICCUP

TESLA co-founder Elon Musk and Mexico’s tequila producers could be headed for a collision after the agave-based drinks industry group opposed the flamboyant billionaire’s efforts to trademark an alcoholic drink dubbed “Teslaquila”. One of the world’s richest people and chief executive of Tesla, Musk is known for ambitious and cutting-edge projects ranging from auto electrification and rocket-building to high-speed transit tunnels. Now it seems that Musk could be setting his sights on disrupting the multibillion-dollar tequila industry. On October 12, he tweeted “Teslaquila coming soon” and an accompanying “visual approximation” of a red and white label with the Tesla logo and a caption that stated “100 percent Puro de Agave”. Not so fast, said Mexico’s Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT). It argued that the name “Teslaquila” evokes the word Tequila… (and) Tequila is a protected word. The CRT keeps tabs on producers to make sure they adhere to strict denomination of origin rules, which dictate the spirit must be made in the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit or Tamaulipas, among other requirements. According to the US Patent and Trademark Office website, Tesla has filed an application to trademark “Teslaquila” as a “distilled agave liquor” and “distilled blue agave liquor”. “If it wants to make Teslaquila viable as a tequila it would have to associate itself with an authorised tequila producer, comply with certain standards and request authorisation from Mexico’s Industrial Property Institute,” said the CRT. I Reuters